Chapter 584

“Once this is all over, Liguang will have so~ many questions for you, Miss Lin.”

Liguang’s gentle voice drifted in from outside the door.

“So… Miss Lin, why don’t you come inside first?”

“The one Liguang has to deal with is someone who would ‘take her Master away.’”

“Having Miss Lin nearby would only distract Liguang.”

Liguang’s voice remained so gentle that it sent shivers down the spine.

“So, I’m afraid you’ll have to bear with me, Miss Lin.”

“And also… Master.”

Hmm?

Fang Qi instinctively let out an “ah.”

“Master trusts Liguang so much, so Liguang trusts Master too…”

Her voice, muffled through the door, gradually became indistinct.

“So… Master, you absolutely, absolutely mustn’t touch Miss Lin, okay?”

“Never betray Liguang’s trust. Otherwise…”

A faint, eerie blue light seemed to flicker through the crack beneath the door.

“Wherever Master touches Miss Lin, Liguang will…”

“Crush that part of Miss Lin bit, by, bit!”

Fang Qi’s pupils abruptly contracted. He instinctively reached out.

“Liguang—!”

“Bzzzt—!”

A buzzing sound suddenly rang in his ears, and then…

All sound vanished in an instant.

The sound of the waves, the wind, even the faintest noise of the air moving…

Everything disappeared.

Fang Qi stared blankly at the closed door and slowly exhaled.

The hand he had raised gradually fell back to his side.

Crazy Girl.

It was so quiet—quiet enough for him to hear his own heartbeat, as well as…

“Ow… that hurts…!”

The continuous groaning from behind him, down by his feet.

Fang Qi slowly turned around and looked down.

Lin Xiaoyou was sprawled across the floor in an extremely twisted position.

Her legs alternated between curling up and stretching out, while she whimpered and moaned, a few tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes.

“My butt…!”

“That Liguang never lets up…! What does she have against my butt, anyway…? Ow…!”

She wailed as she raised her eyes, meeting Fang Qi’s gaze.

“…What are you looking at?!”

Lin Xiaoyou sprang to her feet, frantically bracing herself against the wall. She even instinctively took a step backward!

The back of her head immediately struck the wooden wall with a loud thud. She hissed in pain, yet stubbornly refused to make another sound.

She merely glared at Fang Qi with her wide, almond-shaped eyes.

“P-Predecessor!”

“You—you—you’d better not use this chance to get revenge on me!”

“Liguang may not be here right now, but she can definitely see us!”

Liguang’s earlier warning had clearly frightened her! This time, she retreated as far as she could, pressing herself directly into the corner.

“She must be watching us! I don’t want to be crushed bit by bit!”

Her hair was disheveled, and she stared at Fang Qi in terror.

“Y-You… stay away from me…!”

“Don’t be nervous. She can’t see us.”

Fang Qi suddenly spoke, raising a hand to rub his temples.

“And she… can’t hear anything in here, either.”

What a headache-inducing Crazy Girl…

“…Huh?”

Lin Xiaoyou froze.

Fang Qi turned his head and slowly surveyed the small wooden cabin.

The door and windows were all tightly shut.

Hmm…

He walked over to the window and reached out to push it open. The moment his fingertips touched the edge of the wooden frame—

“Crackle!”

A fine current shot through his fingers!

“Hiss—!”

He reflexively pulled his hand back, leaving half his arm numb.

…Well, that was something.

He shook his numb hand and gave a helpless smile.

Then he looked up at the wooden stairs leading to the second floor.

There was a terrace up there, but the door to it had probably been “welded shut” as well.

…His own wife had locked him in a little black room.

“…Sigh.”

Fang Qi sighed and shook his head.

Crazy Girl. I knew you’d do this.

She claimed to trust him, but look at what she had done. She had locked him up all the same.

She clearly hadn’t trusted him at all.

Still, that was fine.

He could feel the faint tremors beneath his feet.

Something so enormous that it was impossible to imagine was breathing faintly beneath them.

…Let her do it.

That incomplete “world authority” outside was just right for giving his wife some practice.

After all…

A faint smile appeared on his lips.

Everything here in the future—including him—

Would sooner or later be placed in her hands.

Fang Qi smiled and clenched his fist.

Besides, Liguang belonged to him too.

So it made no difference.

“Predecessor, you…!”

Lin Xiaoyou’s voice suddenly rang out.

Fang Qi looked up and saw the round-faced girl struggling to straighten herself against the wall. Her pink jacket had slipped halfway off her shoulder.

But she paid it no attention. She simply stared at him, her lips trembling slightly.

“You’re… now…!”

Her almond-shaped eyes were wide, and her fingers dug tightly into the wooden boards behind her.

Looking at the expression on Miss Genius’s face, Fang Qi couldn’t help pressing his lips together.

How should he put it… His wife really was strange.

She had locked him and Miss Genius in a little black room together, with nothing but the two of them inside?

Tsk, tsk. He truly hadn’t expected this.

When Lin Xiaoyou saw that he remained silent for so long, her eyes trembled as she stared at him blankly.

Then…

“Heh…”

She suddenly laughed.

This time, it was no playful giggle.

It was a somewhat bitter laugh.

She gently shook her head and said softly, “Predecessor, I still… prefer the foolish version of you.”

“…Oh?”

Fang Qi raised an eyebrow and tilted his head toward her, his tone relaxed.

“But didn’t you say you liked smart people?”

Lin Xiaoyou leaned against the wooden wall and looked at him with pursed lips. After a two-second silence, she said softly:

“That’s true. But… hmph.”

She gave a light snort.

“I don’t like liars who are smarter than I am.”

A liar?

Fang Qi shrugged without arguing.

She wasn’t wrong.

He had to admit, he and Liguang were rather alike in that regard.

He didn’t continue the conversation. Instead, he leaned against the wall and sat down cross-legged.

“Phew…”

After softly exhaling, he tilted his head back to look at Lin Xiaoyou and spoke with a smile.

“Xiaoyou, look at this. What a coincidence.”

He relaxed against the wooden wall and rolled his neck.

“Liguang actually locked the two of us in here together. As it happens, there are a few things I wanted to talk to you about!”

“…A coincidence?”

Lin Xiaoyou looked down at Fang Qi, sitting cross-legged on the floor, her eyes lowering slightly.

“Is it really a coincidence, Predecessor?”

She spoke softly.

“All of this…”

“It should have been within your expectations, shouldn’t it?”

She looked at him, her gaze calm.

The corners of her lips pulled into another strained smile.

This time, Fang Qi said nothing. He merely looked at her in silence.

So Lin Xiaoyou withdrew her gaze and turned toward the tightly closed wooden window.

Her eyelashes trembled as she murmured, “Predecessor, I actually knew…”

“The instant I ‘woke from the dream’ this time, I… had already figured out a lot.”

She turned her gaze back to him, staring directly into his eyes.

“In the previous dream, I couldn’t stop myself from ‘invading’ this world, stripping Liguang of her authority, and in the end…”

“I was forced to hand her authority over to you.”

She stared straight at Fang Qi and murmured softly:

“All of that… was actually within your expectations, wasn’t it? You knew I would do it.”

Fang Qi still didn’t answer.

He didn’t even change his posture. He simply continued looking at her.

Lin Xiaoyou drew in a light breath, then bit down hard on her lip.

“You also anticipated that…”

She spoke again, her voice even softer.

“In the ‘dream,’ after seeing the world Liguang created, I’ll be completely captivated.”

“And then…”

She looked straight into his eyes.

“I’ll come over to your side with my ‘incomplete authority’ and help you…”

“Complete your authority!”

Her fists clenched slightly.

“Isn’t that right?”

Ahem, ahem.

Fang Qi raised a hand and rubbed his nose.

Lin Xiaoyou’s chest began to rise and fall a little faster.

“Heh…”

She gave another self-mocking laugh.

“What a brilliant scheme. Even if I guessed this might be the case, I still…”

She shook her head lightly, then focused on Fang Qi again and took a deep breath.

“So, Senior, even now…!”

“The fact that Liguang would lock the two of us up together, and that we’d be able to communicate like this without Liguang knowing… that was all within your expectations too—!”

“Hey, wait!”

Fang Qi abruptly raised a hand and made a “stop” gesture.

“Not this!”

He turned to Lin Xiaoyou with an utterly serious expression.

“This was Liguang’s own choice!”

“I didn’t want to be stuck alone in a room with you! Don’t slander me!”

He curled his lips and muttered under his breath:

“I originally thought Liguang would just throw you into the sea to feed the fish… I really didn’t expect this…”

“Huh?”

Lin Xiaoyou froze.

She stood there in a daze for quite a while, her mouth slightly open, those reddened almond-shaped eyes staring straight at him.

Then—

“Pfft!”

She suddenly burst out laughing! And then she laughed louder and louder!

“Hahahaha…!”

Her shoulders shook with laughter. In the end, tears even flew from the corners of her eyes!

“Oh, that’s wonderful… Truly wonderful…”

She bent over, bracing one hand on her knee while wiping away the tears brought on by her laughter with the other.

“So there are things even Senior can’t predict!”

She sounded incredibly happy!

Fang Qi wasn’t annoyed. He merely shrugged.

“Well, what can I do? The heart of a Little Yandere is just too difficult to understand.”

He turned his head toward the sealed wooden window.

A sliver of light filtered in through the crack.

“My Liguang…”

The corners of his mouth unconsciously curled upward.

“She’s the only existence I can’t predict.”

That was precisely why he was so hopelessly drawn to Liguang.

Whenever he thought he had everything under control, she would suddenly do something completely unexpected.

“Mm, I understand!”

Lin Xiaoyou giggled and nodded vigorously.

“Just like how Senior is the only person I can’t see through!”

Fang Qi: “…”

He slowly turned his head toward Lin Xiaoyou, who was grinning brightly.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Finally, he sighed.

“Xiaoyou, I…”

“Wait!”

Lin Xiaoyou instantly glared at Fang Qi and crossed both hands in front of her chest.

“Senior, what are you thinking? I don’t have feelings like that for you!”

“Oh, right!”

She suddenly planted her hands on her hips. Her eyes were still a little red, but her former vitality had already returned.

She looked positively smug!

“Senior, didn’t you ask me before whether I liked women?”

Fang Qi tilted his head as he looked at her.

“Well, I’m telling you now…”

She took a deep breath, then pointed straight ahead with one hand. Her fingertip nearly poked Fang Qi in the nose.

“That’s right! I like women! I like Xiaoqing!”

Her almond-shaped eyes shone brilliantly, and the corners of her mouth lifted high.

“I don’t like Senior! The one who likes Senior is Lin Xiaoyou, not Lin You!”

“And the Lin Xiaoyou who likes you likes a foolish Senior, not a clever Senior!”

She withdrew her finger, clasped both hands behind her back, puffed out her small chest, and raised her chin.

“So, I, Lin You, hereby announce—”

“I. Like. Sister. Xiaoqing!”

Fang Qi blinked, then suddenly widened his eyes in exaggerated shock.

“Hey, hey, hey! I never said you liked me!”

“You—you’re seriously such a show-off!”

He pointed at her, then at himself.

“And besides, you should go say that to your Sister Xiaoqing! Why are you telling me?”

“Hehe!”

The genius girl’s almond-shaped eyes curved into crescents as she smiled with complete ease.